BEIJING: 12 people have been detained by Chinese police over a hospital fire that killed 29 people, mostly elderly in-patients, in Beijing on Tuesday.
It is one of the deadliest fires in the Chinese capital in recent years.
According to Zhao Yang, an official at Beijing’s fire department, on Wednesday, renovation work on the interior of the Changfeng Hospital is said to be the cause of the blaze that engulfed an inpatient building, when sparks from the construction ignited flammable paint.
Sun Haitao, an official with the Beijing Public Security Bureau, said the hospital director and construction workers were among 12 suspects held on grounds of major negligence.
Among the dead victims, 26 were reportedly in-patients with an average age of 71, with the oldest victim being 88 years old. A nurse, a care worker and a family also died in the fire, according to Li Zongrong, deputy head of the Fengtai district government.
As the blaze engulfed the hospital, a total of 142 people were evacuated, including 71 patients. As of Wednesday, 39 injured are said to remain in the hospital, with three in critical condition, said Li Ang, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Heath Commission.
Videos shared on social media during Tuesday showed smoke billowing out of several hospital windows as people desperately attempted to escape the blaze. One person apparently used a rope made from bedsheets to descend from a window onto a lower level terrace, a video showed.
People were seen either sitting on air conditioning units on the exterior of the building, or trying to use the units to move from one level to the next. One person was seen jumping from one level of the building to the lower terrace.
The blaze on Tuesday is the most deadly in Beijing in recent years, with the toll surpassing that from a fire in 2017 that killed 19 in a cramped two-story building in Daxing district in the capital’s southern suburb.
The 2017 tragedy had prompted authorities to demolish a number of buildings deemed illegal or unsafe in the neighborhood and thousands of migrant workers were forced out of their homes and businesses.
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